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I absolutely despise myths with all my might :P It's interesting some of the stupid things people will believe.
I especially loathe nature myths.
I'm sure everyone has heard about cottonmouths being so aggressive they chase you, bats flying into your hair, and goldfish having a three second memory span (all of these are FALSE!!!)
although I do sort of like some myths becuase they're just so stupid. For example the myth about milksnakes going into barns at night and drinking milk out of cows' udders, etc...

so... this is your chance to dispell some myths and tell us which ones you like/dislike.

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish-Euripides
wikipedia rocks&#33; (except for species info)(CPers-add your vast knowledge of CPs to wikipedia&#33
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it
Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything

like? I know some things aren't myths. For example on average women smell (have a better sense of smell.. although you could say both LOL) better than men, women are better at communication, men really do hate asking for directions, etc..

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish-Euripides
wikipedia rocks&#33; (except for species info)(CPers-add your vast knowledge of CPs to wikipedia&#33
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it
Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything

I like to think I'm pretty lucid with my communication here, and I've never once been lost and not asked directions if I could.

These things bother me because, like the racial differences we mentioned in the other thread, even if there are tendancies "statistically", they're typically almost useless in predicting the behavior of the next person you meet. People aren't statistics. You really don't know what's inside a person until you get to know them, and it's easier (and vastly more fair to that person) to just skip the preconceptions entirely. I actually can't think of a single girl I know who really fits the female stereotype, nor can I think of a single guy I know who really fits the male stereotype. They're all just... human.

It drives me crazy that even while people are crusading to put an end to prejudice (pre-judgement) towards various groups and minorities, making gender assumptions seems to be perfectly acceptable... the status quo in fact. As if 3 billion humans could ever possibly agree on anything.

Plus people are being encouraged to "find what they're looking for" where this is concerned. For example, maybe one day a guy slips up and does something that happens to fit a negative male stereotype. Maybe he's not feeling well that day... maybe he happened to have a lot on his mind... who knows. But to a girl who witnesses it who believes in these gender myths, suddenly he becomes "typical". Suddenly he's bearing the full burden of this elaborate caricature people have created in their minds. All because he was just having a bad day. It's just another form of top-down thinking if you ask me.

I also feel the whole emulating-those-most-superficially-similar phenomenon is playing a big part in this. People want to have an identity and they want to belong, so they look to others they perceive to be in their "group" for cues on how to behave. So I think a lot of people fall into these stereotypes not because of innate differences but because they just figure that's the role they're supposed to grow into. Or in the case of the negative stereotypes, many of them get lazy and figure it's easier to just blame your gender on your character flaws than it is to actually improve yourself. How these stereotypes started, I don't know... it's a bit like the chicken and the egg. I do believe some of it has biological origins... but I think there's been a lot of snowballing and exaggeration. Maybe I'm odd but when an animal instinct pops up that gets in the way of what I really want, I haven't found it very difficult to just brush it aside.

I haven't read this book yet, but I already know I'll be recommending it to people. Sounds like it's right up my alley.

I don't mean to go on a tirade... it's just a big sore spot for me. I'm tired of people thinking they can tell me who I am because I have a Y chromosome.